Taking Back Sunday
Taking Back Sunday is an Alternative Rock band from Amityville, New York. It was started in 1999 by Steven DeJoseph and Eddie Reyes and has gone through numerous lineup changes, released seven successful albums, an EP, a handful of demos, and numerous singles. Biography Taking Back Sunday was founded in 1999 by Eddie Reyes and Steven DeJoseph. Reyes was already a veteran of the music scene on Long Island, and took part in numerous seminal projects. Mind Over Matter, a hardcore outfit, influenced Screamo and Post Hardcore bands like Thursday and Glassjaw; bands that would shape the face of Post Hardcore music for years to come. Inside, another band that Reyes was a part of was one of the most influential indie emo bands on Long Island. Their sound was similar to that of Mineral and Sunny Day Real Estate. Reyes also founded The Movielife, a Melodic Hardcore band that gained much fame in the underground and eventual mainstream music scenes. Steven DeJoseph was also a part of influential bands like Pretty Polly and Prescott C. When choosing members for the band, Reyes approached Jesse Lacey, whose band The Rookie Lot had just broken up to play guitar and sing. Jesse brought in John Nolan on guitar and vocals, and Jesse switched to bass. Antonio Longo, who had been in the band One True Thing was recruited to sing. The band played a few local venues while going through different band names, before settling on "Taking Back Sunday", a name of a song from the bands' friends, The Waiting Process. Derrick Sherman from The Reunion Show was in the band. In interviews, while the band was first getting recognition for their material, they frequently told interviewers that the name of the band was a reference to a Smith's single that was a b-side to "How Soon is Now?". While recording their first six track EP, Jesse Lacey left the band to form Brand New with Brian Lane, the drummer of The Rookie Lot. Then, John Nolan half jokingly asked his friend, Adam Lazzara from North Carolina if he would move to Long Island and play bass for the band. Within the next week, Adam had moved to Bellmore, with Jon and was the full time bassist. Adam worked at Eddie Reyes' father's deli for pay. Half way through their EP, Steven DeJoseph left the band, to reform his old band, Prescott C. Mark O'Connell, a drummer from the island who had experience in hardcore and ska bands (like The Posers) was brought in by Lazzara. With the new members, the five piece finished the Taking Back Sunday EP. However, after an argument between Antonio Longo and Eddie Reyes, the band decided that another lineup change was needed. Adam Lazzara was moved to lead vocals, at Eddie's behest, and Shaun Cooper was brought in on bass. The band began writing new material and recorded a demo, which was put out through Levittown's own Miscellaneous Records. The first song the band wrote under the new lineup was, "Great Romances of the 20th Century". The band has stated since that the way their writing process works, is that someone comes up with a "riff" and everyone else adds onto it and perfects the song around it. And once the instrumentals were complete, John and Lazzara would take lines from their notebooks and put them together for the song's lyrics. The demo was called both the Taking Back Sunday Demo and the Tell All Your Friends Demo, both included different album art. The band began to tour relentlessly with bands like Brand New, The Reunion Show, Rival Schools, The Rainboy Case, and others before speaking to labels. In 2001, their good friend Christian Winters from Hi-Lo Films filmed a video for the demo version of "Great Romances of the 20th Century". When the band was finally signed to Victory Records, the band showed them the video, they loved it, and Christian went back to re-edit it to the album version of the song. Tell All Your Friends In 2001, the band was signed to Victory Records, who gave them the best reception out of all the labels (including Triple Crown and Drive-Thru) that they spoke to. The band began playing larger and larger shows both in and out of state with bands like Alkaline Trio, Armor for Sleep, The Starting Line, Murphy's Law, Brand New, The Getaway, and many others. The label set them up with the New Jersey studio, Big Blue Meanie (a reference to The Beatles' Yellow Submarine) and the band began to record what would be their debut album. On the first day of drum recording, the band sdidn't show up with a drum set. Tim Gilles and Sal Villanueva produced the record, and during the process they gave the The band finally finished recording in late december/early January of 2002, and announced a proposed March 12th release date. Within the first week, "Tell All Your Friends" sold over 2,300 copies. The album cover is a picture of an off-ramp, marked by a sign bearing the words "Exit 152", signifying the exit sign where they met their friends. The number has appeared on every album cover to date. Most of the band's lyrics were taken from the titles of TV shows, specials, and movies. For example, "Great Romances" was taken from a movie about couples in history. To promote the record, Victory premiered the bands music videos on MTV2 and Much Music, as well as commercials on MTV2, and ads in magazines such as Spin. The band began getting attention from online and offline periodicals from around the world. In one case, a German interviewer was told by John that Eddie's name was "Douche Bag", and he believed it. At the end of their summer tour in 2002, the band shot a Fight Club-themed music video for their song, "Cute Without The 'E' (Cut From the Team)", where girls of past relationships were beating up the band. Lazzara had stated numerous times that there was a point in his life that he watched the film every day. The band then embarked on The Best Revenge Tour with Recover and Midtown, and after four successful shows, Adam accidentally fell off stage while dancing during Midtown's set, gashing his face in two places and dislocating his hip. The band cancelled the remaining dates and took the time off to start writing new music, spawning songs like "The Metal Song", "I'm Not Gay (I Just Wish I Were)", and "You Can Slowdance On the Inside". It also gave the band the opportunity to create an acoustic set, where the songs were stripped down so that they could play the final three hometown-area shows. After Adam had recovered, the band headed out on a National co-headlining tour of 500-1,500 seat venues, with a few breaks to play dates on the Boxcar Racer, H20, The Used Tour. In January of 2003, Taking Back Sunday embarked on a tour with The Used, with plans to head to Europe in the early spring, and made plans to play the Vans Warped Tour. In 2003, Taking Back Sunday almost broke up when guitarist and back-up vocalist John Nolan, as well as bassist Shaun Cooper, left the band to form Straylight Run. The loss of John and Shaun put the already unstable band into a state of heightened tension, and delayed shooting for the band's next video, "You're So Last Summer". However, with the addition of guitarist/vocalist Fred Mascherino, formerly of Breaking Pangaea, and session bassist Matt Rubano, the band stabilized, and they were able to complete the music video. Flavor Flav is also featured in the video, singing John's vocals since Fred was still new in the band. It was Mark's idea to have a rapper in the video. The video was filmed at Fulton Ferry State Park in Brooklyn. The band, under the new lineup's first song written was "Bonus Mosh Pt. II", which got its title when a friend of the band was listening to a demo and said "Whoa, that’s a bonus mosh part two, man, that’s cool. It’s like a second mosh part in the song". Eddie has stated that the working title for the song was originally "You're Just Another Stupid Haircut". At live performances since, Adam sometimes calls "Set Phasers To Stun", "You're Nothing But A Goddamn Haircut." The second song written was "A Decade Under the Influence". Fred has since stated that he had never properly tried out for the band, rather, Reyes just told him that he was in one day. Where You Want to Be In 2004, with a new lineup on their hands the band embarked on a tour with Blink-182 on the west coast and co-headlined the Vans Warped Tour, under the false name "Booze & Adventure". Also in 2004, a few months before their albums release, the song "Follow the Format" was leaked from their album; a song that was in response to John Nolan's opinion that all Taking Back Sunday songs have the same structure. The band, disheartened at the fact that their material had been heard before the release of the album, cut the song from the release, and instead put the acoustic version of "Your Own Disaster" on Japanese Import CDs. The band also released their sophomore album, "Where You Want to Be". Many believe this title to be a reference to the fellow Long Island Post Hardcore outfit, On the Might of Princes' album "Where You Are and Where You Want To Be". The album was originally going to be called "Make It Your Business", however this soon changed. They later admitted the album title was completely and blatantly ripped off from OTMOP. The album was released through Victory Records on July 27th, 2004. On the front cover of the album, there is a picture of a baby who the band claims is Eddie Reyes. The album was produced by Lou Giordano in New Jersey, and the album featured vocals and "tidbits of... lyrical genius" from Nick Torres of Northstar/Cassino and Neil Rubenstein from These Enzymes. The album managed to do very well commercially, and the album went to debut at the #3 spot on the Billboard 200 albums chart, without around 163,000 copies sold. In support of the album, the band appeared on late night talk shows like Jimmy Kimmel Live!, and Loveline, as well as contributing the song "This Photograph Is Proof (I Know You Know)" to the soundtrack for Spider-Man 2. They also contributed the song, "Your Own Disaster" to the Elektra (2005) soundtrack, and recorded the song "Suburban Home" made famous by The Descendants, for Tony Hawks Pro Skater Underground 2. The band released three singles in support of the album; the first being "A Decade Under the Influence", which landed the #16 spot on the US Modern Rock Charts, and #70 on the UK Modern Rock Charts. The line from the song, "I got it bad" is an homage to Van Halen's "Hot For Teacher"; (got it bad, got it bad, I'm hot for a teacher), paid by Fred. The video was shot in a shipyard in Brooklyn. The next single they released was "This Photograph Is Proof (I Know You Know)", which was rumored to be written about the conflict with John Nolan about Adam Lazzara cheating on his sister, Michelle Nolan with another woman. The song's video was directed by Tom Delonge of Blink 182/Angels and Airwaves. Their third and final single was the song, "Set Phasers To Stun", which was also the first song on the album. The video was sent to the band completed; they loved it and released it. Later on they released a comedic Making The Video for it. Louder Now On April 25, 2006, Taking Back Sunday released their third album, entitled Louder Now, on Warner Bros. Records. The band's comments on the album reflected the dramatic change the band had undergone in the two years since their last release. Lazzara stated that fans seemed to feel their live shows had more energy than their recordings, and that Louder Now brought more of that across. Taking Back Sunday received mainstream exposure by appearing on the late night talk shows The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, and Late Night with Conan O'Brien, as well as the teen drama Degrassi: The Next Generation. In December 2006, the band released its first DVD documentary, Louder Now: PartOne, featuring behind-the-scenes tour footage and four live concert videos. Following months of touring to support Louder Now, Taking Back Sunday appeared in the American leg of Live Earth on July 7, 2007. During the summer of 2007, Taking Back Sunday was also a part of Linkin Park's Projekt Revolution tour, along with My Chemical Romance, HIM, and many other bands. During the tour, Mark O'Connell was diagnosed with a herniated disc, and for the first time in eight years they used a replacement drummer. On October 30, 2007, the band's former record label, Victory Records, released Notes From The Past, which featured four songs from Tell All Your Friends, six songs from Where You Want to Be, and two B-sides: "The Ballad of Sal Villanueva" and "Your Own Disaster". The band then released Louder Now: PartTwo on November 20, 2007, a DVD of unreleased live concert footage from their show at Long Beach Arena in Los Angeles, as well as special features such as the video for "Twenty-Twenty Surgery" that was made for Europe. The DVD was packaged with a companion CD featuring eight live tracks, two B-sides that were previously unreleased in America, and a special "Twelve Days of Christmas" track. On November 20th, 2007, the band released Louder Now: Part Two CD and DVD, which includes webisodes, unreleased live videos, bonus features, behind the scenes footage, and much more. During their first appearance on Last Call with Carson Daly in which they played You're So Last Summer, they also played Cute Without The 'E' - Appeared on a Degrassi episode called Whats It Feel Like To Be A Ghost and also a Degrassi mini webisode. - Have appeared on the soundtracks of Spiderman 2 (This Photograph Is Proof), Elektra (Your Own Disaster), Fantastic Four (Error Operator), and Transformers ( Whats It Feel Like To Be A Ghost). - The 'Bree Ann' in 'I Am Fred Astaire' & 'I'll Let You Live (demo)' is just a close friend of the band and they included her name in it as a shout out. New Again New Again is the fourth studio album by American rock band Taking Back Sunday, released through Warner Bros. Records on June 2, 2009. It is the first album to include their new guitarist Matthew Fazzi after the departure of Fred Mascherino in mid-2007. It was produced by David Kahne, with a selection of tracks also produced by Matt Squire. Additional production on all tracks was done by Jamie Siegel. The name of the album, New Again, was announced through the band's page on November 6, 2008. It was chosen because Adam Lazzara felt that they were a new band.needed. “We kicked around a bunch of different titles, but that one always remained the top of the list, and that’s because it really does feel like a new band,”. A song off of the album, "Carpathia," was made available as a free download on December 21, 2008 to anybody that purchased a TBS Holiday Card Pack. Drummer Mark O'Connell has stated that it is not the finalized version of the song. Taking Back Sunday released a 7" vinyl with "Carpathia" and a live version of "Catholic Knees" on April 18.needed The album's first single, "Sink Into Me", was released to radio on April 27, 2009.2 It was also released online via iTunes on April 21, 2009. Adam Lazzara told MTV that, "the music behind it is unlike anything we've ever done before. 3 The music video premiered May 11, 2009 on MTV.com, MTV2, MTVu and MTV Hits. The song "Where My Mouth Is" is most likely going to be a single also, according to the band's website. 4 In a recent statement, Adam said that the song "Capital M-E" is about ex-guitarist Fred Mascherino and his comments aimed at the band since departing. The same day the band released the date the album would be out, they released the album artwork, which was done by Brad Filip (also the album artist of Where You Want to Be and Tell All Your Friends). In the past, the band have expressed that the number 152 always appears on the covers of their albums. On the Tell All Your Friends artwork it is simply written in the corner next to the album's title. On the artwork for Where You Want to Be, there is a sign saying "next exit 152 miles". On the Louder Now artwork, the price on the theater's sign is "$1.52", and on the New Again artwork, it has been hidden to a further extent. Hanging from the rear view mirror of the car are three fuzzy dice, showing the numbers 1, 5 and 2 respectively. Additionally, the CD design also references the band's home of Nassau County, Long Island, with the Area code 516 appearing underneath the speedometer. editSpecial Edition Taking Back Sunday offered a special edition package, which came with a small model car with decals, an air freshener, three dice, a 2GB USB storage key, and a fake drivers license featuring one of the band members. The CD itself included an additional "making of the album" DVD which also featured a track-by-track commentary from the band, as well as an autographed booklet.5 recently released photos taken by Ryan Russell of them working hard in the studio. Members *Adam Lazzara (Vocals, Guitar, Harmonica) *Eddie Reyes (Guitar) *Shaun Copper (Bass) *John Nolan (Guitar, Vocals) *Mark O'Connell (Drums) Former Members *Steven DeJoseph (Drums) *Jesse Lacey (Bass) *Antonio Longo (Vocals) *Matt Rubano (Bass) *Matt Fazzi (Guitar, Vocals) *Fred Mascherino (Guitar, Vocals) Discography Albums *Tell All Your Friends (2002, Victory Records) *Where You Want to Be (2004, Victory Records) *Louder Now (2006, Warner Brothers) *New Again (2009, Warner Brothers) *Taking Back Sunday (2011, Warner Brothers) *Happiness Is (2014, Hopeless Records) *Tidal Wave (2016, Hopeless Records) EPs, Demos *Taking Back Sunday EP (2000) *Lullaby EP (2000) *Taking Back Sunday Demo (2001) Singles *"Timberwolves at New Jersey" (2002) *"Great Romances of the 20th Century" (2002) *"Cute Without the 'E' (Cut from the Team)" (2002) *"You're So Last Summer (2003) *"A Decade Under the Influence" (2004) *"This Photograph Is Proof (I Know You Know)" (2004) *"Set Phasers to Stun" (2004) *"MakeDamnSure" (2006) *"Twenty-Twenty Surgery" (2006) *"Liar (It Takes One to Know One)" (2007) *"What's It Feel Like to Be a Ghost?" (2007) *"Sink Into Me" (2009) DVDs *The Louder Now DVD: Part One (2006) *The Louder Now DVD: Part Two (2007) Compilation Appearances *Spider-Man 2 Soundtrack (2004) *Elektra: The Album Soundtrack (2005) *Fantastic 4: The Album Soundtrack (2005) *Tony Hawk's American Wasteland (2005) *Notes From the Past (2007, Compilation, Victory Records) *Transformers Soundtrack (2007) External links * Official Taking Back Sunday website * * Taking Back Sunday's Official VMIX * Taking Back Sunday at YouTube * Taking Back Sunday at AOL * Taking Back Sunday at MTV.com * Taking Back Sunday at Rolling Stone * Recent Live Photos * Interview with Eddie * TBSUnion.com Fansite Category: Alternative Rock Bands Category: Signed Touring Bands Category: Melodic Hardcore Bands Category: Post Hardcore Bands